Motherhood: perspectives from a new mom

Motherhood is...

• re-heating your morning cup of decaf around 1:00 in the afternoon, for the second time.  Sitting down to enjoy it finally, and hearing your baby crying for you over the monitor.
• feelings of frustration & exhaustion at 3:00 AM when your sweet baby wakes up crying, seemingly hungry, only to nurse groggily and drift off to sleep again after just a few suckles, unable to be kept awake to take a full feeding.
• feeling that your heart might literally burst with joy at 8:00 AM, when that same sweet baby smiles and coos at you with that gorgeous toothless grin.
• having an altogether heightened sense of hearing. Waking at the smallest sounds, movements, or other indications that he needs you.
• a constant ringing in your ear...is that him crying? Oh, it was just the TV? Ooops.
• a new-found obsession with stool. Your baby's, that is. Researching at 4:00 AM what the color and consistency of your little one's latest poopy diaper might be telling you.
• surviving on less sleep than you've ever gotten, even in college.  But doing more than surviving.  Thriving. 
• wishing he would stop spitting out the pacifier that he so clearly really wants to keep in.  Giggling at the cute little sound of his slowly fading whimper as you put it back in for him.  For the 20th time. 
• trading in trendy handbags for practical diaper bags. And loving it. 
• not being completely grossed out by body fluid, including poop, pee, vomit, and drool. As long as it's your little one's of course. 
• wishing you could bear his pain as fights through the things that ail him. Thankfully, right now this is mostly just trapped gas or hunger, both easily remedied.
• pure elation at the little smiles on his face as he sleeps. Loving the little smiles on his face after a good poop just as much.  
• understanding the phrase "time flies" on a whole new level entirely.
  
• wishing you could freeze time and see into his future - both at the same time. 
• learning the true meaning of prioritization: which one do you really want more - a shower or breakfast? Because chances are good you only get to pick one somedays.
• definitely not for the faint of heart. 
• the most rewarding feeling. 
• gaining a new & deeper appreciation for every sacrifice my mother ever made for me, including the many of which I'll never know the real depth.

And above all...thanking God every day for this little miracle. Praying for the guidance and wisdom to raise him well. Trusting that God hears you and knowing that He loves him even more than you do.

This smile makes it all worthwhile!